스포츠 리그의 특수성과 경쟁제한제도

Characteristics of Sports League and Anticompetitive Restraints

현대의 스포츠는 프로화 및 엔터테인먼트 사업화가 급격히 진행 중이며, 이러한 스포츠 엔터테인먼트 사업 중 대표적인 것이 스포츠 리그이다. 스포츠 리그는 대중으로부터 받는 관심 만큼 수익을 얻는다는 엔터테인먼트 사업적 특성에 따라서 독특한 운영상의 특수성을 가지며, 이러한 특성에 따라 다른 분야에서는 찾아보기 어려운 드래프트 제도, 보류 제도와 샐러리 캡과 같은 소속 구단 및 선수의 계약체결의 자유를 제한하는 제도가 시행되고 있다. 이러한 경쟁제한제도들은 스포츠 리그 운영에 필수적인 “구단간 경기력 균형 유지” 및 “선수 보수의 적절한 제한”에 필수적인 것으로 인정될 수 있다 하더라도, 그 본질이 스포츠 리그의 독점적 지위를 이용하여 리그에 소속된 구단은 물론 특히 선수의 권리를 제한하는 것이기 때문에 독점금지법 위반 및 선수의 기본권 침해가 문제되어 왔다. 이러한 문제를 판단함에 있어서 경쟁제한제도의 시행 자체가 위법한 것으로는 볼 수 없고, 문제가 되는 경쟁제한제도가 그 시행의 목적을 넘어 과도하게 구단 및 선수의 권리를 침해하고 있는지가 검토되어야 하며, 그에 따라 위법성 여부가 결정되어야 할 것이다. 나아가, 이러한 경쟁제한제도의 위법성 논란을 근본적으로 해결하기 위해서는 관련 문제가 발생한 후에 법적인 판단을 내리는 것보다는 이러한 경쟁제한제도들의 시행 여부 및 시행 방법에 대하여 리그와 선수들 사이에 적절한 협의가 이루어질 수 있는 절차가 법적으로 보장되는 것이 필요하다고 생각된다.

These days, professional sports leagues have gradually become big entertainment businesses. Especially Major League Baseball and English Premier League are very popular worldwide and earn big money. and there are four professional sports leagues in Korea at present. In sports leagues, the profits of the league and clubs depend on fans interest in the games between clubs, therefore it is very important to increase their incomes that the games in league are made to be exciting. So sport leagues have adopt the special and unique anticompetitive restraints, such as draft system, reserve system, and salary cap, which have played the role of maintaining the competition balance of clubs and the restriction of players salaries properly which were necessary to manage sports leagues. Under the draft system, the rookie player can sign a contract only with the team which have received exclusive rights and selected him in draft procedure, and he has no chance to be signed by other teams. And the player s wage can be restrained by the salary cap, which is a limit on the amount of money a team can spend on player salaries in a season. And upon the contract s expiration, the rights to the player are to be retained by the club to which he has been signed under the reserve system. Therefore the player is not free to enter into another contract with another club before his obtaining of free agency. These restraints are necessary to preserve the sound finance of clubs and leagues, and those have taken that role very efficiently. But, from the point of players view, these clauses infringe on players rights to choose clubs to be signed with a higher salary. In the relation of this infringement of players rights, the U.S. Supreme Court adjudicated that the excessive restraint clauses included in the Standard Player Contract were against antitrust law. and the Korea Fair Trade Commission admitted KBO to be the business association, and decided that the reserve and draft syetem made by KBO contravened the korean antitrust law. And, according to that decision, the excessive restraint clauses of KBO were revised partially. But, the application of the competition law to the case of sports leagues is not enough to remove the unfairness of player contract and to protect players interests in korean sports leagues fundamentally. It is the best way to unravel the unfairness of player contract that players organize their own associations, and they negotiate with the leagues all about their contractual rights and duties, like those of U.S. leagues.